H.B. 2636 would amend one section of Kansas law dealing
with reinsurance agreements. The bill would strike the words
"policyholder and" to clarify that the interests of ceding insurance
companies, not policyholders, are protected by trust funds created
by reinsurance companies as prescribed by law.

The bill, as amended by Senate Committee, would mandate
any individual or group health plan which provides coverage for
accident and health services, as well as any nonprofit medical and
hospital service corporation, to include coverage for prostate
cancer screening. The mandate would apply to all policies
delivered, issued for delivery, amended, or renewed in Kansas
after July 1, 1998.

Specifically, the bill would require insurance coverage of, at
least, a prostate specific antigen blood test and a digital rectal
examination for all men over 50 and for men over 40 who are
symptomatic or in a high risk category. The bill provides that
deductibles, coinsurance, and other limitations that apply to other
covered services would apply to the prostate cancer screening.

An additional Committee amendment clarifies that the
prostate insurance mandate does not apply to Medicare supplemental policies, long-term care policies, or other specified accident
coverage defined in rules and regulations of the Insurance
Commissioner.

The Senate Committee of the Whole amendment clarifies that
the mandate also does not apply to disease specific policies.

Background

H.B. 2636 was requested by the Insurance Commissioner
whose representative explained that this technical change in the
law would clarify that reinsurance trust funds are required of
reinsurers to pay claims solely to ceding insurance companies.
Including policyholders in reinsurance statutes, he indicated, was
inappropriate and such references have been deleted from the
model law of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners
upon which the Kansas law was based.

Deleting reference to policyholders would have no impact on
claims of policyholders since those claims would be made against
the company that issued the policy of insurance.

The Senate Committee amendment inserts into H.B. 2636 the
provisions of S.B. 409 as introduced by Senators Jones and
Becker and passed earlier by the Senate.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research
Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental
note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at
http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext-bill.html.